A Week-In-The-Life of Dave & Debra on the Tour d’Afrique

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Dave Bouskill and Debra Corbeil (better known as Dave and Deb) are an adventure travel couple from Canada. Together they have traveled to over 30 countries on 5 continents; hiking, bicycling, climbing, diving, and trekking their way around the world. Last year, they spent four months on two wheels, doing something so adventurous that very few of us could ever imagine it. So I have asked them to help our imaginations along, by giving us a week in their lives…on the Tour d’Afrique.

This post was originally published in 2009. It has since been updated for accuracy of links and content.

The Tour d’Afrique is an epic adventure and a test of the human will. Known as the world’s longest cycling race from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa, insane cyclists ride over a period of 120 days for 12,000 km through some of the most brutal conditions that the continent can throw at you. Life on the road can be a bit surreal to say the least. Days no longer have names, just distances and vague directions. Faces become blurs that you pass from town to town and countries are ticked off before you even realize where you’ve been.

Ah, to camp your way down the continent Africa. The call of the wild lulling you to sleep as the sweet sounds of nature slowly rouse you out of your gentle slumber. Well, that is what you imagine it would be like. On the TDA, however, we fall asleep to a concerto of snoring followed by a symphony of farts and awake each morning to James Brown’s “I Feel Good”, or Queens “Bicycle” blaring from the speakers of our support vehicles. Sixty people camping together can be interesting indeed.

It is 6:30 am and depending on what country you happen to be in, you are either freezing your butt off or boiling away in your tent as you prepare for the day ahead. Romance goes out the window for this couple, we lay in our 2-man tent buttering up our cheeks before sliding into our riding shorts. Careful not to get sand mixed in with the cream we are now protected from the dreaded chafing. Now thoroughly slathered and uncomfortable, we can get on with our day.

We proceed to pack up the tent and its contents into our Tour d’Afrique issued Red Box. Everything we need is stored in that red box, and it is loaded onto our truck for safe keeping until we see it again at the next camp 100 plus kilometers down the road. It is then off to breakfast. This is not a luxury tour, we have come here to see what we are made of, and the food is a test on our stomachs each day. We scramble to the line with our plates in hand eager to fill ourselves with the morning’s delights. Dry bread, soggy porridge and if we are lucky some muesli and powdered milk. We wash down our chow with purified water, pack away the rest of our gear and hop on our bikes for the ride ahead.

The temperatures can be extreme in Africa. Mornings in the desert of the Sudan can be close to zero and by the afternoon can reach over 40˚. It is a good idea to be on the road as soon as the sun rises.

The days can be monotonous. We ride in packs or sometimes alone for 70km until we meet our truck pulled off at the side of the road for lunch. We refill our water bottles, grab a sandwich or two and fight over the last piece of fruit. Then we are off again for the remainder of the afternoon.

Rides are only interrupted for the odd Coke stop. We live for these moments. No matter how remote or out of the way we seem to be, there is always a place to buy Coca Cola, Pepsi or Fanta. Sitting in the shade chugging back a few bottles replenishes our salts and sugars and we feel that we just might actually make it through the day.

Nora’s Note: You might also be interested in the tale of how I starved myself in Thailand and discovered the essential properties of salts and sugars.

Cycling can be pretty hairy in Africa. We dodge obstacles ranging from potholes to cattle, speeding buses to rock throwing children. We out-run packs of wild dogs or in Dave’s case a wild baboons and we battle non-existent roads and deep sands. It is always a sigh of relief when we make it to camp in one piece.

Camp is normally in the middle of nowhere parked in the desert or pulled off in a clearing just beside the road. The afternoons are spent trying to find a patch of shade to lie down for a nap or read a book as we sip on soup for to restore our fluids and electrolytes.

When we have our fill and are feeling mentally prepared, we tackle the red box again. Finding a flat clean spot, we clear away a dried cow paddy or two, and keep an eye out for hidden ant hills while we set up our tent for the evening ahead. Then we wait with baited breath for the call from our trusty leader…”RIDER MEETING.” Like clockwork it comes just before the sun goes down and just before our dinner is served. The rider meeting is where we find out what is in store for us the next day. How many kilometers we will be riding, what the terrain is like, where we might be able to find a Coke stop and how far we will have to ride before lunch.

Then we all jockey for position to get to the front of the line for the nights meal that is either pasta or stew. We eat as fast as we can because there is never quite enough for everyone to have seconds. It has become the survival of the fittest (or should I say the “piggiest”) and if you are slow, there are no seconds for you.

After 6 days of setting up and taking down tents and riding hundreds of miles we finally have a rest day or two planned at some of the most interesting places in Africa. Our rest days are a time to take in the sights but to also a time to tune up our bikes, change our tires depending on the terrain ahead, and finding an Internet to update our blogs. These “rest days” are anything but.

During the race, we can go from the lowest of the lows to the highest of highs in the blink of an eye. Epic climbs where we are only riding 6km per hour can suddenly turn into a 20 km down hill where we reach over 80km per hour on our two wheels. Getting lost in the desert can turn from a terrifying experience to an incredible feeling of hospitality when you stumble into a remote village and a family invites you into their home for a drink. At times we feel like mini celebrities as we ride. Police escort us through towns with sirens blaring and people cheering and finally, the feeling of finishing in Cape Town to the welcoming crowds of spectators, diplomats and press in second to none.

We have gone on travels for several months before taking in the sights at our own leisurely pace, climbing a mountain or two and trekking out to the jungle. But nothing has tested us quite as much as the Tour d’Afrique. Nothing has pushed us beyond our limits like this experience, and not one adventure has been as unique as cycling the continent of Africa.

Dave and Debra are in Canada right now, preparing for another epic adventure at the end of this year: this time through Central Asia. You can follow their adventures at www.theplanetd.com, or watch for their Tweets @theplanetd.

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